Access control systems known from the state of the art as a rule comprise a number of access control devices with a reading unit for reading the data required for checking the validity of an access control device and a locking device, which is actuated by an actuator controlled via a control in order to enable a person/a vehicle to enter or leave a building or an area. In addition access control devices comprise vending machines for access authorisations and/or pay stations for paying the fee due for using an access control system.
In order to install and configure a new component of such a system, it is known from the state of the art, to initially install on the device an operating system by means of a storage medium such as by means of an SD card.
As a rule this operating system is a general operating system, which is not adapted to the device to be installed. Therefore the IF configuration or the definition of important parameters and environmental variables such as of server addresses, must be carried out manually.
It is also known from the state of the art, following installation of the general operating system, to use a pre-configured USB stick, which is read out via a software (a so-called Bootstrap-loader) pre-installed on the device to be configured. By means of this software the required configuration parameters, e.g. time of day, date and environmental variables, are downloaded from the USB stick and installed in the operating system. Following this step a technician establishes a connection by means of a SSH network protocol between the device to be configured and a further device and creates a new password. When entering the new password errors may happen if for example, this password is not entered correctly. Moreover, the new password entered is usually not encrypted, which may give rise to security-critical situations.
In order to set an IP address via the Bootstrap loader, the MAC address (media access control address, i.e. the hardware address of the network adapter of the device to be configured) must be known, which is not always the case. Therefore a technician must log in on the device to be configured in order to perform the IP configuration if the MAC address is not known.